System and Method for Sharing Information

ABSTRACT

A novel mechanism is disclosed by which a sender can direct information such as an audiovisual signal to a particular recipient&#39;s audiovisual display device, such as a cable television set and, thereby, share information between the sender and the recipient. In one embodiment, a calling party originates a telephone call and associates that telephone call with audio-visual information that exists on the caller&#39;s personal computer or on an Internet server. The called party answers the call, and can tune an associated cable television to the appropriate channel in order to view the audio-visual information. In another embodiment, the caller is a hotel guest and the called party is a hotel concierge and vice versa. The concierge provides information to the hotel guest such that the hotel guest can tune in to a channel on their hotel television set and access the information.

This is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/223,161filed Dec. 30, 1998 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERNETCO-BROWSING OVER CABLE TELEVISION AND CONTROLLED THROUGH COMPUTERTELEPHONY.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to television systems and computer systemsand, more particularly, to systems and methods for sharing informationbetween the two, and even more particularly, to systems and method forsharing information between a concierge and one or more recipients ineither a permanent or temporary residential setting.

With the pervasive presence of voice communication devices, there isalso a common need to share visual information as well. Many consumershave expressed the need to share family photographs with others, as isevidenced in part by the rapid adoption of digitized photography andphoto album software. Likewise, many customers find voice-onlyinteractions with businesses wanting, as evidenced in part by the rapidgrowth in visually-oriented web-based customer support. An earlyalternative to voice telephony has been video telephony. Video telephonyallows telephone calls in which both caller and calling party can seeeach other via a visual display. The visual display and camera needed ateach end of the call might be attached to the phone, to a PC, or to atelevision. The slow adoption of this form of communication is partlydue to the need co-diffusion of the technology (i.e. both parties needsimilar equipment), the expense and difficulty of managing thetechnology, and the lack of interest by many consumers.

The rapid development of the World Wide Web and the Internet hasprovided alternative avenues of sharing information. For example, IP(Internet Protocol) cobrowsing is a process that allows users to controlweb browsing on their personal computers (PCs) and on PCs operated byother PC users. Thus, the uniform resource locator (URL) displayed inone browser is also displayed on another browser. Depending on theapplication, control might be symmetric (shared by both users) orasymmetric (controlled by only one user). Other collaborative PCapplications allow multiple users to simultaneously control the viewingand editing of the same document. In order to use the above methods ofsharing web browsing and other applications, however, both users areobviously required to have access to a PC. Most households in the U.S.do not have PCs. PCs currently have a market penetration of roughlyforty percent of U.S. households, and far fewer use such PCs for webbrowsing (though they may use the Internet from work).

On the other hand, approximately 65% of U.S. households subscribe tocable television and cable networks can be easily accessed by over 90%of U.S. households. Methods currently exist that allow a television setto be used as a web browser to access the Internet, e.g. WebTV. Sucharrangements, however, rely on upstream data paths either through acable or telephone connection. Navigating the World Wide Web requires aseparate keyboard or a specialized remote control. Moreover, the set topbox required for such arrangements tends to be costly and also tends tobe difficult to use by people who are not familiar with web browsers andURLs. Accordingly, there are many people who would benefit from theability to see certain web sites occasionally without requiring the needto browse on a regular basis. One example of such a person would be acable TV viewer who occasionally desires information from a site such asPointcast but otherwise is not interested in web browsing or computeruse. Another example is a personal computer user who desires to send agraphic image to a person who has access to only a cable TV, e.g. aPC-enabled family who wants to send a picture of a newborn baby whilesimultaneously talking to the far-away grandparents who only have accessto cable TV and a telephone line.

The discussion above suggests three recent market trends that arerelevant as background to the current invention: (1) the slow growth ofvideo telephony and WebTV; (2) the development and growth ofInternet-based cobrowsing techniques; and (3) the rapid growth ofmethods that allow consumers to create digitized photographs, store themin a personal computer, and share them via the Internet with closefriends and relatives. Accordingly, given these three market trends, itwould be advantageous to devise a novel mechanism for directing data(such as an audiovisual signal) across a data network (such as theInternet) to a particular cable TV.

Such a novel mechanism for directing data across a data network to aparticular cable TV would be very desirable in certain applications,such as for example, in a centralized concierge application, where acentral concierge may serve a number of clients from a single location.The concierge may provide personalized services via this novel mechanismsuch as information about, for example, travel arrangements, restaurantreservations, recreation activities and any number of client request. Insuch an example, the central concierge may serve the needs of any numberof clients, such as hotel guests, condominium residents, etc. withoutregard to whether the concierge and the clients were located in physicalproximity to one another.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention presents a novel mechanism by which a sender candirect information such as an audiovisual signal to a particularrecipient's audiovisual display device, such as a cable television setand, thereby, share information between the sender and the recipient. Inone embodiment of the invention, the calling party originates aconnection on a voice communication network, e.g. a telephone call, andassociates that telephone call with audio-visual information that existson the caller's computer or on an Internet server. The called partyanswers the call, and can tune an associated cable television to theappropriate channel in order to view the audio-visual information. Thecaller can modify the audio-visual information during the call.Accordingly, the current invention ties together the telephone, cable,and IP networks in a manner that does not require large investments fromcable or telephone service providers beyond what is already beinginvested to support Internet-access with cable.

The key concept is the association between two otherwise independentchannels of information: one used for multi-way voice and the other fordata. Information in the setup instructions for the multi-wayvoice-enabled channel is used to address the recipients of data (who arealso participants in the voice conversation) and in-band signaling or animplicit criteria such as duration of the conversation is used to grantpermission to receive data over the data channel. Notably, theconversation can continue while the data is being transmitted.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a called party, such as arepresentative at a customer service center or an interactive voiceresponse unit, can associate audio-visual information with the call suchthat the calling party can see the data on the appropriate televisionchannel. In another embodiment, the telephone keypad can be used to moveforwards and backwards through a series of audio-visual screens. Inanother embodiment, the cable subscriber can preset the television to aparticular URL which can be viewed, but not navigated, without thetelephone call.

In another embodiment of the invention, a telephone connection isestablished between a client, such as a guest in a hotel, or similarly,a resident in a condominium or apartment building and a concierge. Thecall may be originated by either the guest/resident or the concierge.The concierge may provide certain audio-visual information or content tothe guest's/resident's display device, such as their in-room cabletelevision which can then be accessed by the guest/resident.

These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from thedrawings and the detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a integratedtelephony/data/television system configured in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall block diagram of a integratedtelephony/data/television system configured in accordance with anotherembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart setting forth the sequence of steps implementingone of the methods disclosed of sending an audiovisual HTML document toa cable television associated with a telephone number.

FIG. 4 is an overall block diagram of an integratedtelephony/data/television system configured in accordance with yetanother embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of the present inventive method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in theblock diagram of FIG. 1. An Internet/online subscriber 110 with accessto a “control” computer executing client software 120 and a telephone115 wishes to communicate with a recipient who is a community accesstelevision (CATV) subscriber 170 and who also has a telephone 175. Anintegrated telephony/data/television network 130 connects the sender tothe recipient. Known security and encryption mechanisms can beincorporated into the signaling protocols used to implement the presentinvention.

The control computer (which may be a personal computer or an automatedinteractive server of some kind) may be connected to a data network,which for purposes of illustration is a connectionless packet-switchedpublic data network (PDN) such as the Internet. The sender's controlcomputer is connected across the data network to a server computer 150which facilitates the broadcast of the information to the recipient. Theclient software 120 illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a computer program121 which permits the user to choose a recipient from an address book122 and dial a voice connection to the recipient by selecting button123. The client software 120 also comprises a computer program 125 thatoperates like a World Wide Web browser. The user can choose informationto be transmitted to the recipient by inputting a file name or URL infield 127. The information is displayed in window 128 and can betransmitted for broadcast by selecting button 126.

The telephones 115, 175 are connected to a voice communication network140. The telephones can be conventional voice telephone sets withstandard local loop connections to nodes within respective localexchange carrier (LEC) networks and between which conventional voicecommunication paths can be established through an interexchange carrierand/or LEC network. The telephone network may be a conventionalconnection-oriented telephone network, such as the PSTN, or some othertype of network such as an IP-based network. Accordingly, the voicecommunication network can be separate from the data network, or can be apart of the data network. Regardless, control and authorization signalpathways 131 connect the networks and provide access to a database ofsubscriber information 135 which includes information regarding therecipient.

The recipient of the shared data 170 may be a CATV subscriber with aconventional television set 180 connected to some coaxial cabledistribution network. In FIG. 1, the television 180 is shown connectedthrough a set top box 185 to a cable head end 165 of the cabledistribution network. The cable network can be one-way (only a downstream broadcast path) or two-way cable (with a return path). A portionof the bandwidth can be reserved for entertainment channels from somedownstream entertainment channel source. The cable head end 165 isconnected to an IP/cable gateway 160 which provides access to the datanetwork. The cable head end and the interface unit can be physicallylocated in the same or different locations. The digital signals from theInternet are transformed into whatever type of signal utilized by thetelevision 180 for display, e.g. the standard analog NTSC-modulated RFcarrier, an MPEG-compressed digital data stream, or any other format.Regardless of form, specific television channels can be allocated to thepresent invention or the spectrum devoted to IP communication can beused.

The system permits the control computer to be used to (a) set up atelephone call among two or more telephone sets, and (b) for theduration of the telephone call, display audio-visual material on thecable televisions owned by the called parties. In one embodiment of theinvention, the information sent to a particular channel of the CATVsubscriber's television is a reformatted version of the content of a URLon the Internet/Cable server and associated with the subscriber'stelephone number. Similarly, a direct data channel can be providedbetween the IP gateway and the Internet-enabled cable head end so that acomputer attached to the Internet could directly send audio-visualsignals to a cable television using the Internet Protocol withoutnecessarily using HTML. Known software techniques for screen sharing canbe used to implement such a system.

With reference to FIG. 3, a flowchart is shown which sets forth asequence of steps implementing one of the methods disclosed of sendingan audiovisual HTML document to a cable television associated with atelephone number. The steps disclosed are merely exemplary and are notmeant to limit the nature of the invention. At step 301, a computeruser, utilizing a conventional Internet browser, first accesses awebpage dedicated to the instant application. At step 302, the userinvokes the application, which may provide some login process to confirmidentity.

At step 305, the user wishing to send the audiovisual HTML document to aparticular CATV subscriber is provided with a means to download the HTMLfile to a specific network and subnetwork address, e.g. a URL. Thisaddress is uniquely associated with the CATV subscriber, e.g. theinformation sent to a particular channel of the CATV subscriber'stelevision is an NTSC version of the address's content. An appletwritten in Java can be invoked that displays the information residing atthe URL to the user in a window set to a television's aspect ratio.Scrolling in the window can direct the scrolling of what is displayed onthe television. The HTML file, which exists on the user's computer isdownloaded to the cable subscriber's cable/internet server.Alternatively, the computer user can be provided with means to redirectthe above URL to another URL, so that the HTML file displayed on theCATV subscriber's television resides only on some other Web server.Alternatively, screen sharing software can be utilized to send an imagedisplayed on the user's computer screen to the cable subscriber'scable/internet server. Rather than an image, any other type of data,such as audio-visual material, can be encoded, sent through the Internet(or an intranet) and decoded to be broadcast on the cable subscriber'stelevision.

At step 310, the user can then initiate a telephone call to the CATVsubscriber. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the userutilizes an Internet-based telephonic connection service, such as AT&T'sClick-2-Dial. Such a service would permit the user to input the callingnumber and the destination number, and this information would then betransmitted across the data network to a connection server which wouldestablish a telephonic connection to both the user and the destination.The user's telephone would ring at step 311 and the CATV subscriber'stelephone would also ring at step 312. As both parties answer theirrespective telephones, the connection server bridges the two connectionspermitting the parties to communicate. The details of such a process areset forth in co-pending commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/038,149, to Bennett et al., filed on Mar. 19, 1997.

After the TV subscriber answers the telephone call, a version of the URLformatted for the subscriber's television is broadcast on the designatedCATV channel at step 320. As described above, the signal can be any typeof signal that may be utilized by a television for video display,regardless of the form, including the standard NTSC-modulated RFcarrier, an MPEG-compressed digital data stream, or any other format.The broadcast can commence immediately, after a designated period oftelephone connection time (e.g. a minute), after the called party hasexplicitly accepted the cable transmission (e.g. through touch tone), orafter some other condition has been met. Explicit acceptance could beaccomplished using the touch-tone keypad on the called party'stelephone. The calling and called parties can be permitted to interactwith the displayed material: either through the calling party's computeror through the use of the touch tone keypad on either the called orcalling party's telephone. Thus, the visual display can be altered atthe direction of the cable TV viewer via the telephone touch-tone.Scrolling of the CATV image could also be done via the called party'stelevision remote control.

The broadcast transmission to the subscriber's CATV can continue untilthe phone call is disconnected. Likewise, the called party can also beallowed to continue viewing the information after the connection withthe calling party has disconnected. An example of such a system, afterthe voice communication connection has ended, is shown in FIG. 2. Thecalled party could continue to interact with the World Wide Web and theweb page even after the calling party disconnects, for example, by usingthe telephone's touch-tone. As shown in FIG. 2, a subscriber 210 withaccess to telephone 215 and a computer running software 220 communicatesvia network 230 with CATV subscriber 270 who has access to telephone andtelevision devices 275. Access to the system is controlled viasubscriber data server 235. Software 220 includes a computer program 221with an address book facility 222. Software 220 further includes abrowser facility 225 for specifying certain information, such as viasoftware facilities 226, 227 and 228 to provide to subscriber 270. Suchinformation is pushed to server 250 and delivered via gateway 260 andheadend 265 to subscriber's set top box 285 which displays theinformation on display 280.

The figures and the description above refer to cable television,although the concept can be easily generalized to practically any dataservice such as satellite TV, or MMDS broadcast TV, or even digitalradio. Similarly, the concept can be generalized to allow data to besent to any audiovisual display device, e.g. the receiving party couldbe using a personal data assistant and could receive the telephone calland then receive the “pushed” data, as described above. For purposes ofthe present invention, a personal data assistant can be any intelligentconsumer device including a personal computer which is manufactured forInternet browsing or for IP reception. The device can be wired or can beequipped for wireless reception from the network.

A second incoming call to the CATV subscriber attempting to presentaudiovisual information would normally receive a “busy” signal, unlessthe subscriber has call waiting. In such a case, means can be providedwhich would cause a synchronized switching between the respectiveaudiovisual materials when the called party switches between thetelephone calls. Likewise, a call that is forwarded would also allow theaudio-visual information to be forwarded to the cable TV of thereceiving household or office. Thus, the above service can begeneralized to include CLASS services and their business analogs, e.g.3-way calling.

The above-mentioned Click-2-Dial permits Internet-based telephonicconference calls. Similarly, each cable subscriber connected using suchan audio conference call feature can also, using the above method, beallowed to simultaneously view the displayed information on their cabletelevisions. Furthermore, the above concept can be generalized tomultiple Internet users, so that a calling party can allow a calledparty to view particular URLs on their own personal computers (not theircable television) during, and only during, a telephone call (unless theimage is explicitly saved by the receiving party)—or during and after(but not prior to) the call.

The basic infrastructure that is disclosed could support many otherthird party applications as well as the above illustrative application.For example, the cable subscriber can originate the call to aninteractive voice response system (IVR) and instruct said system toallow viewing of specific audio-visual material through the subscriber'scable television. One example would be if a cable subscriber calleddirectory assistance and used the above method to view telephonedirectory listings, including related advertisements or information. Thedirectory listings could be residential or commercial; they couldrepresent a selection of those listings most called or received by thesubscribing household, or the most recently called or received phonenumbers by the subscribing household. The subscriber could select one orseveral listings and instruct the telephone network to complete a callto the selected telephone numbers.

Therefore, as seen from this example, a request to send information tothe cable television of a telephone call participant can be made whetheror not the person issuing the request has a computer or otherIP-compliant device. Thus, either the calling or called parties canissue a request to send information to the cable TV by using anytelephone device, e.g. a mobile phone. Moreover, devices other thancomputers can be used to send information through the Internet to thedesignated cable television. For example, a fax machine can send a faxto an internet server which translates the fax image into IP messages.Using the telephone number supplied by the fax machine user, the IPmessages are then sent via the Internet to the cable head end associatedwith that telephone number and, accordingly, to the appropriate cabletelevision.

Provision can be made in the customer premise equipment (CPE) to storethe audio-visual information for later recall by the televisionsubscriber, for printing or sending to a fax machine during or after thecall, or for forwarding to another television subscriber via theabove-described phone call mechanism. The stored audio-visualinformation can be the actual image, or it can be a URL address of theinformation. The receiving CPE can also be configured to receive controlinformation from the sender of the information. This control informationcan be used to restrict the storage of the information at the receiver'spremises and thereby protect intellectual property rights. Restrictionscould be enforced forbidding the storage of any of the information,permitting only the URL to be stored, permitting only received image tobe stored, or permitting the storage for later viewing but forbiddingthe printing, faxing, or retransmission to another device. Except forindustry-wide solutions, there is currently no way to prevent atelevision subscriber from video-taping the received signal. Thecommunications industry, however, is currently working on devices thatrestrict the taping of pay-per-view television, and such technology canbe adopted in the above invention to further prevent illegal copying.

A further embodiment of present invention is shown in FIG. 4. Thisembodiment is described with reference to a hotel setting but is easilyapplicable to similar settings such as a condominium, a hospital, anapartment complex and other similar setting. In this embodiment, anumber of clients or information recipients, such as hotel guests,tenants or other residents may request and be provided information fromthe concierge or alternatively, the concierge may unilaterally provideinformation to the clients. It is contemplated that any number ofclients may be serviced by the central concierge. In this exemplaryembodiment, one or more of the guests in the hotel may call theconcierge number to request information, such as a listing ofrestaurants, a specific restaurant menu, directions to a specificlocation, recreational activity information or other information as maybe required. Alternatively, the concierge may initiate the call to theguest. Once a communication between the guest and the concierge isestablished, the concierge is able to push visuals to the guest'stelevision. To access these visuals the guest would tune the televisionto a specified channel. The concierge could be anywhere in the word, inany time zone and could provide service for multiple hotels. Alternativedisplay devices are possible, e.g. a guest's PC or a broadband phone inthe guestroom or lobby.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an exemplary system 400 of an embodimentinvolving a concierge 410 and at least one client, such as a hotelguest/tenant 420 is shown. In this embodiment, the concierge 410 hasaccess to a telephone 412 and a computer 414 which preferably includes aguest/tenant phone listing 416 which is provided in a software program418 running on computer 414. In one embodiment, it is contemplated thattelephone 412 and computer 414 may be either integrated into a singledevice or may be provided as separate devices. With telephone 412 andcomputer 414, concierge 410 is able to communicate with guest/tenant 420who also has access to a telephone 422 and a television 430. Anintegrated telephony/data/television network 450 connects the conciergeto the guest. Known security and encryption mechanisms can beincorporated into the signaling protocols used to implement the presentinvention.

In this embodiment, computer 414 (which may be a personal computer or anautomated interactive server of some kind) is connected to a datanetwork, which for purposes of illustration is a connectionlesspacket-switched public data network (PDN) such as the Internet. Computer414 is connected across the data network to a server computer 460 whichfacilitates the broadcast of the information to the recipient. Computer414 runs software 418 which in one embodiment, permits the concierge 410to choose a recipient from an electronic guest book and dial a voiceconnection to the recipient. Such software also allows concierge 410 toreceive calls and see which guest/tenant may be calling. Suchfunctionality may alternatively be integrated into telephone 412. Clientsoftware 418 also provides concierge 410 with the ability to chooseinformation to be transmitted to guest/tenant 420, such as via abrowser-like facility 422. Within browser-like facility 422, concierge410 may view, search, choose and select specific content 424 to beprovided to guest/tenant 420. As provide earlier herein, such contentmay be a listing of restaurants, a specific restaurant menu, directionsto a specific location, recreational activity information such as movieor show times and locations and other related information.

Referring again to FIG. 4, in this embodiment, telephones 412 and 422are connected to a voice communication network, such as a hotel PrivateBranch Exchange (PBX) 470. PBX 470 may also be provided with standardlocal loop connections to nodes within respective local exchange carrier(LEC) networks and between which conventional voice communication pathscan be established through an interexchange carrier and/or LEC network.The telephone network may also be some other type of network such as anIP-based network. Accordingly, the voice communication network can beseparate from the data network, or can be a part of the data network.Regardless, control and authorization signal pathways 454 connect thenetworks and provide access to a database of subscriber information 458which includes information regarding the subscribers to the system, suchas concierge 410 and guest/tenant 420.

As provided earlier herein, guest/tenant 420 has access to telephone 422and television 430. In one embodiment, television 430 is connected tosome coaxial cable and/or satellite distribution network, such as ahotel cable network. Television 430 is shown connected through anaddressable component, such as a set top box 434 to a network interface438 which may include a cable headend and an IP/cable gateway whichprovide access to the data network and receives content pushed fromserver 460.

In the present invention, in order to facilitate communications betweenparties, it is preferable to have both the concierge and the any numberof clients, such as the hotel guests to pre-register with the system,such as through an interface with subscriber data server 458. Theregistration process may include having registrants provide informationsuch as the location of the phones, and whether or not the associateddisplay device is permitted to send and/or receive visuals which isrecorded in for example, database 458. In the present invention, thedisplay used by the concierge is always permitted to send, and typicallythe guest's display is only permitted to receive content. Thus, when acall, is made to or from a hotel telephone that subscribes to theservice, such as telephone 422, hotel PBX 470 sends a message via theInternet to a server, such as server 460, that, for example,guest/tenant 420 has called concierge 410. At the same time, PBX 470forwards the call to an available concierge, such as concierge 410. Aslong as the call is active, the concierge can “push” visuals to theguest's device, such as television 430.

In an alternative embodiment, the concierge can also push visuals whenthe guest and concierge are not actually talking via the telephone,provided concierge is registered with the system and authorized toperform such an activity. To do so when no call is active, the conciergeenters a hotel code and guest room, such as through software 418provided on computer 414 or alternatively, through an Interactive VoiceResponse Unit provided through telephone 412 to establish a connectionto guest/tenant 420. In the preferred implementation, the concierge canalso change the default image shown on the designated television channelon guest/tenant's television 430. To see the visuals on the guest TV,the guest can tune to a designated channel or navigate to the designatedchannel using the television's remote control. If the guest andconcierge are not talking, the image shown on the designated channel isa default image which may be customized for the guest. If they aretalking, the image is either the default or the last pushed image.

In this embodiment, the image pushed by the concierge to the guest'sdisplay can be archived and reviewed by the guest at a latter time. Thisreview may be accomplished using standard ITV technology. Finally, whena guest checks out of the hotel, the archive and any customized imageswill no longer be accessible from the guest room television. Notably,since the service is distributed and not necessarily local to the hotel,the visuals sent to the guest could be forwarded to another hotel or theguest's home or office, or accessed by the guest from another hotel.

Referring to FIG. 5, an exemplary method of the present invention isshown. In this embodiment, a call is initiated by a party, such as aconcierge or guest and the system determines if the telephone call isbetween subscribers, step 510. If so, a signal is provided to the serverthat a call has begun between a subscribing concierge and a subscribingguest, step 520. Content is received from the subscribing concierge,step 530. The received content is delivered, i.e. “pushed” to thesubscribing guest, step 540. Once either party terminates the call, asignal is provided to the server that the call has ended, step 550.

It is contemplated that the information recipients or guests maysometimes want a hardcopy of the visual shown on a display device orother related materials. If the concierge is not resident in the hotel,the concierge can push the visual or associated visuals to a fax machinein the guest's room or in the lobby. Additional material might bemaintained in the hotel lobby and retrieved by a hotel clerk uponreceiving a message from the concierge.

It is to be understood that the above embodiments and their variationsare not mutually exclusive but can be combined in various ways toprovide a service offering for a subscriber customer. Moreover,variations and modifications to the above-described preferred embodimentwill be apparent to one skilled in the art that are also within thespirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A method for providing information from a firstparty to a second party comprising: linking the first party and thesecond party via a voice call; forwarding audio-visual informationrelating to the voice call via a data link to customer premise equipmentassociated with the second party for storage; forwarding controlinformation defining usage permissions and usage restrictions related tothe audio-visual information to the customer premise equipment via thedata link.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the usage restrictionsforbid printing and faxing of the audio-visual information and the usagepermissions allow retransmission of the audio-visual information by thesecond party to another device.
 23. The method of claim 21 furthercomprising: allowing the second party to view the audio-visualinformation on a display device associated with the second party only inresponse to the linking the first party and the second party.
 24. Themethod of claim 21 wherein the audio-visual information is based oncontent of a particular universal resource locator.
 25. The method ofclaim 21 wherein the first party initiates the voice call using a hotelcode and a room number of the second party.
 26. The method of claim 21wherein the second party initiates the voice call.
 27. The method ofclaim 21 wherein the audio-visual information relating to the voice callis based on content of the voice call.
 28. A method for sharinginformation between an information provider and an informationrecipient, the information recipient associated with a display device,the method comprising: establishing a voice connection between theinformation provider and the information recipient; forwardingaudio-visual information relating to the voice connection via a datalink to a storage device associated with the information recipient forstorage; and forwarding control information defining usage permissionsand usage restrictions related to the audio-visual information to thestorage device associated with the information recipient.
 29. The methodof claim 28 wherein the usage restrictions forbid printing and faxing ofthe audio-visual information and the usage permissions allowretransmission of the audio-visual information by the informationrecipient to another device.
 30. The method of claim 28 furthercomprising: allowing the information recipient to view the audio-visualinformation via the display device only in response to the establishingthe voice connection.
 31. The method of claim 28 wherein theaudio-visual information is based on content of a particular universalresource locator.
 32. The method of claim 28 wherein the informationprovider initiates the voice connection using a hotel code and a roomnumber of the information recipient.
 33. The method of claim 28 whereinthe audio-visual information relating to the voice connection is basedon content of the voice connection.
 34. A device for receiving anddisplaying information comprising: a receiver in communication with aninformation provider and associated with an information recipient; adisplay device associated with the information recipient; and a storagedevice associated with the information recipient configured to storeaudio-visual information from the information provider and controlinformation defining usage permissions and usage restrictions related tothe audio-visual information, the audio-visual information associatedwith a voice connection between the information provider and theinformation recipient.
 35. The device of claim 34 wherein the usagerestrictions forbid printing and faxing of the audio-visual informationand the usage permissions allow retransmission of the audio-visualinformation by the information recipient to another device.
 36. Thedevice of claim 34 wherein the storage device is configured to allow theinformation recipient to view the audio-visual information on thedisplay device only after the voice connection has been established. 37.The device of claim 34 wherein the audio-visual information is based oncontent of a particular universal resource locator.
 38. The device ofclaim 34 wherein the audio-visual information associated with the voiceconnection is based on content of the voice connection.